


wanna grab a bite?

by storyop



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, did any of y'all see bangtan's new comeback, i always knew jeongguk was bengali, that was a love letter to bollywood lbr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-26 15:24:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15665955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storyop/pseuds/storyop
Summary: the best way to hunt vampires is to be a vampire





	wanna grab a bite?

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaand im back !! sorry for the long ..... long ........... Long wait i have been writing all summer but i posted nothing lol
> 
> for jonghyun i miss u

  
  
  
  
  


THEY ALL have their side jobs. it is, perhaps, a true testimony to how the bite does not discriminate when it comes to who it claims, when you look at the range of careers these eight men hold. on one end of the spectrum you have baekhyun byun, a pretty and sharp-mouthed billionaire sitting on a pile of money and influential contacts, while on the other hand you have jongin kim, who runs a coffee shop by the name bite-n-brew that does incredibly well despite him equating the taste of coffee to that of months-old blood. 

(according to chanyeol park, who had the misfortune of trying some out after losing a bet—yes, it was one that had to do with how many blood-born he had put away that month—jongin is a fool and a liar, because nothing could be as bad as the clotted, disgusting mess that is blood that has festered for almost half a year. according to jongin, chanyeol is the idiot for making a bet against their best blood-born hunter in the first place. for those of you that have been wondering, and by chance placed your vote in an online poll, it is baekhyun.) 

blood-born hunters in this world are no rarity. they are, simply put, the police force for the underbelly of earth life—or un-life—and unlike in the pulp fiction books you can get at the supermarket for three dollars each, they are not pseudo-criminals with stakes and garlands of garlic, working under the double threat of death and capture by the human police. no, hunters are organized and catalogued by the international blood-born hunter database (the IBBHD), and they are sent on their jobs with UN-approved weaponry and a fun team name, which is perhaps the only part of their existence they, and not the united nations, come up with. it’s still required to be approved. 

what is, however, a rarity is a blood-born hunter group made up entirely of blood-born themselves. X-ACT had to jump through several hoops to be recognized by the UN, but now they enjoy the benefits of any other blood-born hunter group—even more so due to the fact that they are the most successful one. the collective agreement in X-ACT, and indeed much of the general public, is that this can be owed to the fact that they are all blood-born themselves. 

however good at their jobs—and popular—X-ACT is now, they had a bit of a rocky start. originally, the UN and the IBBHD were very much against the idea of X-ACT, claiming it to be too “unorthodox” to be successful. the idea was originally proposed by current X-ACT member junmyeon kim, back when he was a lawyer in the city of new york under the blood-born division of the mega-firm lee & associates. (he has since then quit his job to become the full-time manager of X-ACT, and no matter how many times you ask him if he regrets any of it, his answer stays a resounding  _ no _ .) it had taken a lot of lobbying by junmyeon and the owner of lee & associates—a quick to smile man by the name of taemin lee who i had the pleasure of getting coffee with a few days prior to the start of this assignment—as well as several strings pulled by baekhyun for the IBBHD and later the UN to give X-ACT a chance. 

the rest, as they say, is history. 

 

 

LET ME start at the beginning, if it can be counted as a beginning. 

it is a rather cold autumn day in october when taemin lee and i sit down for a cup of coffee in bite-n-brew. jongin is not here today, and we are served by a human barista who blushes quite a bit when she realizes who i am seated across from. taemin, who tells me he never eats anything solid before 1:00 pm on the dot, orders a hot chocolate with extra marshmallows. he has made it abundantly clear that he is paying for whatever i get as well. 

there is a lot of genuinity in everything taemin does or says, and there is also little doubt that he is incredibly intelligent. his charm and wit make it quite obvious as to why he’s one of the most reputable figures in law, despite being yet to reach his mid-twenties. he is an interesting man, and interesting can be quite uncommon these days. 

the reason that taemin and i are meeting is to discuss the issue of publicity concerning X-ACT. as it usually happens with overnight sensations, X-ACT was recently thrust into the spotlight and have amassed a sizable following consisting of, among others, a surprising number of teenage girls. following the tradition of korean pop idols, they also have international fansites who feed into the cult-like following by photographing almost every one of X-ACT’s appearances at the airport. 

(when i ask them about this, it is baekhyun who answers. “it’s always been necessary for me to present well whenever i’m in public,” he says with a casual shrug. “it did take a while for the rest of my team to adjust to being camera-ready at all times. every once in a while, we’re all too tired to bother. our job can be difficult.”) 

despite all of this, there is a major obstacle taemin says X-ACT wishes to work through. after the un-life war and the devastation felt by every country, it is not surprising that there was quite a bit of stigma surrounding blood-born. this has lessened somewhat, X-ACT’s very existence being ample evidence toward it, but that does not mean it is anywhere close to disappearing. the public, minus X-ACT’s self-declared die-hard fans, has not gotten the chance to properly acquaint themselves with the blood-born team. 

this is where i come in. it is my job to tail X-ACT for the week that they have been put on leave by the IBBHD and observe what they do on their infrequent time off. the people, taemin tells me with a small smile on his face, do not care about the hunting. they care about  _ who _ X-ACT are.

taemin slides a manila folder across the table, other hand held firmly on his cup of hot chocolate. “this is information about the members of X-ACT,” he explains. “it’s more than most people know—at least, yet—but it’s not everything. the IBBHD would only de-classify so much.” 

outside of the bite-n-brew windows on the east side is a view of the tall apartment building known as the hub. it is one of the tallest buildings in new york city, and it houses a number of well-known figures: chinese-popstar-turned-international-icon kris wu, rashmi chakraborty (inventor of vaxx, the powdered flavoring that works with blood), and X-ACT themselves. they take up the penthouse floors, as no space is large enough for eight men in their twenties who are living together even if they don’t all have to share rooms or even suites. taemin points it out, reminding me to be there tomorrow morning at 10:00 am sharp. 

taemin is an amicable partner in conversation, and our allotted two hours pass very quickly. it’s enough time for him to finish his hot chocolate, and for my overly sweet coffee to get cold. he excuses himself with a smile—he never seems to be  _ not _ smiling—commenting about piles of paperwork he has to complete and clients he has to appease. 

“ah,” taemin says, pausing in winding his scarf around his neck. “when you see X-ACT tomorrow, if you get the chance, tell jongin to tell baekhyun i said hello.” he tips his head slightly. “it was nice meeting you, kyungsoo do. i wish you the best of luck in dealing with those boys.” 

take all of that as you will. 

 

 

THE HUB is an ornate building, both inside and out. there is also a massive amount of security surrounding it, and it takes a badge, several biometric scanners, and two large suit-wearing men flanking me before i’m allowed to take the private elevator up to my destination. uncomfortably enough, two of the elevator’s walls are mirrors spanning the entire height of the box. perhaps X-ACT enjoy looking at their reflections. 

there are four floors of penthouses in the hub. X-ACT occupy all of them, split into pairs as each is a two-bedroom unit. the very top houses baekhyun byun and jongin kim, then jongdae kim and dr. minseok kim, then sehun oh and junmyeon kim, and finally yixing zhang and chanyeol park. i am heading to floor 57, the very lowest one of those four, where the members of X-ACT are, as i was told, sitting in yixing and chanyeol’s living room. 

chanyeol is the one waiting for me when the doors open. he is one of the more well-known members of the group, along with jongdae kim, yixing zhang, and sehun oh—all four of them are members of a rock group called X.O.dus that does frighteningly well on the charts. 

part of my research, done after my meeting with taemin, included watching X.O.dus interviews in order to gauge the personalities of half of X-ACT. out of the four of them, it is chanyeol and jongdae who speak the most, but whenever yixing or sehun chime in they always have something insightful to add. their dynamics are interesting but not out of the ordinary. 

chanyeol greets me with a cool handshake as i step out of the elevator. everything about him is larger than he appears in photos, from his hands to his ears to the obviously uncomfortable smile he is sporting for my sake. he leads me to the entrance, but stops right before it, hand hovering above the doorknob. 

“i’m sure someone—taemin, probably—has already been over this with you,” chanyeol says, “but under no circumstances are you to join us on any one of our missions. technically, we’re on break, but we’re still on call in case an emergency comes up or something. okay?” 

taemin has indeed already covered this. i thank chanyeol for his concern and tell him that i am absolutely uninterested in finding myself in the crossfire between blood-born in conflict. for whatever reason, this seems to amuse him. 

it is a surprisingly casual scene that i find myself watching as chanyeol and i move from the foyer to the living room. jongdae appears to be half-asleep on the corner of the couch, although how he can rest with the amount of sunlight streaming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows is beyond me. baekhyun and jongin are busy playing a fairly heated match of some video game, curses flying unrestrained from baekhyun’s mouth even though, according to my limited knowledge, he’s winning. yixing is sitting on an ottoman with a guitar perched in his hands, seemingly more interested in conversing with sehun than playing music. junmyeon is reading a thick book on business ethics. minseok is the only who is missing. 

“minseok’s in the kitchen making lunch,” chanyeol explains, anticipating my unasked question. “usually we just order take-out or pizza or something, but he insisted on being hospitable for you. trust me when i say none of us are complaining about a home-cooked meal. do you? cook, i mean?” 

“sometimes,” i answer, and it is not a lie. 

junmyeon is the first to approach, his handshake far firmer and assured than chanyeol’s had been. it’s interesting that chanyeol is so uncomfortable by the prospect of a reporter prying into his personal life; i had assumed it would be second nature to him due to his participation in X.O.dus. to be fair, this is a whole other side to him; the truth of being blood-born might be something is he more hesitant to share with whoever reads my piece. 

it quickly turns into the rest of X-ACT lining up behind junmyeon for a handshake, with the exception of chanyeol. minseok finally makes an appearance from the kitchen. when the formalities are over, the eight men assemble on the couch, looking at me as though i am there to strip them of all their clothes and shove them out butt-naked for the entire world to see. 

“you can ask. whatever it is, you can ask it,” baekhyun says. he is the most surprising of them all, mostly because everyone—including me—is so used to seeing him refined, in a well-fitted suit and a perfectly-knotted tie and polished shoes. but here he is, smack in the middle of the couch, wearing a pair of jeans with enough holes in them that they seem pretty useless in their job and a rather obnoxious shirt that says supreme on it in block letters. even his hair is unstyled. 

jongin is eyeing my notepad and pen with a mixture of distrust and apprehension. it is really only baekhyun and junmyeon that seem somewhat comfortable in my presence. 

“i only have one question for you this morning,” i say. “why  _ you _ ?” 

 

 

AS IT turns out, the insider version of the story of X-ACT’s birth is not particularly different from the one everyone already knows. junmyeon and baekhyun had drawn the team together from two opposite ends; originally it had been merely them and jongin, who had been provided by taemin as a good choice since they had been friends for several years. the three of them had quickly agreed that there was something missing, and no blood-born hunting trio could hope to last with so few, regardless of how good they were. 

when rock band X.O.dus had fallen victim to a blood-born attack, they (and their manager) had panicked, sure that any fans of theirs would jump ship once they found out all four of them had received the bite. so they’d signed up to become a part of X-ACT—and come out of the other side of an intense training regimen only to find that interest in them had only increased as news of the attack had spread. so three became seven. minseok kim had been the last addition, and a bit of an accident at that. a practitioner specializing in the blood-born, he had always treated X-ACT and their various injuries. when a blood-born had attacked the hospital, seeking revenge, he’d gotten bitten as well. after that, as he so put it, he had “said fuck it and decided to join the team.” so seven became eight.

minseok, as the rest of X-ACT will attest to, is an incredibly talented man. one of those such talents include cooking, as i find myself sitting at a table laden with a delicious spread of food come lunchtime. chanyeol gives me yet another amused look as i sit; i have yet to figure out what it is i do that makes him look at me so funny. 

it’s striking, watching X-ACT eat. minseok and junmyeon take their time, while baekhyun shovels food in his mouth. he is a loud eater as well, making grunts and moans of pleasure between every other bite. jongin elbows him, and baekhyun takes no notice. 

it is not to my surprise that they want to learn more about me as we eat, even though i am supposed to be the one asking questions. all of them—jongin especially—seem interested in the fact that i have two dogs, and soon the conversation turns to pets. it is rather impressive how these eight men all juggle hunting, jobs, and taking care of animals. 

chanyeol’s chair makes a quite horrifying scraping noise as he scoots his chair closer to me, pulling his phone out. “toben—that’s my dog—he’s sleeping right now. do you want to see pictures?”

the enthusiasm chanyeol displays when he is showing me pictures of toben is very infectious. chanyeol tends to display the same level of enthusiasm in his interviews, and what i had previously believed to be the product of extensive record label grooming seems to be genuine—at least in the case of his dog, who, yes, is very cute.

while many fans probably already know this, here is a briefing for those newly interested; the rest of X-ACT’s pets include:

  1. jongin, resident dog lover extraordinaire, owns three dogs named monggu,  jjanggu, and jjangah. two of them are toy poodles. all three of them resemble him in some way. 
  2. junmyeon’s dog, who he treats as his own progeny, is a sweetheart named byul. byul is as gentle as her father is unfunny, and therefore tremendously enjoyable to cuddle.
  3. baekhyun and his pembroke welsh corgi mongryong are the same soul split into two bodies. both are extremely protective, and as twitter user @hyunniebun.92 insists, extremely cute. 
  4. sehun pampers his bichon frise, vivi, like no other. vivi seems as tired of sehun’s constant fawning as the rest of X-ACT is.
  5. minseok is the only one of them with a cat, tan. she lords over the place, and they all bow down to her. especially minseok.



yixing and jongdae own no pets, but rearing seven dogs and one cat is a collective venture. they all have their hands full. this, they all tell me, in detail—i do not know if they are doing it on purpose to distract me from any substantial talk of themselves or if they truly want me to know every last trick when it comes to dealing with their babies, but it is not at all unpleasant. 

i ask them about garlic.

“it’s not deadly,” minseok says. “it just causes rather severe gastrointestinal problems.” chanyeol turns bright red as everyone seated at the table shifts to look at him. 

it is easy to forget, sitting there, that i am surrounded by blood-born—until jongdae brings out the wine, and a decanter full of blood. it lies thick and viscous in its container, and jongdae proceeds to carefully pour eight glasses of wine mixed with blood. 

it is chanyeol—again, with that same amused expression on his face—who asks me, “would you like some wine?” i do not decline, and jongdae does not add blood to mine. 

 

 

SEHUN, AS the youngest one of them, was not alive when the un-life war occurred. however, minseok is the only one of them who has any memory of it, and it is not much, because there is only so much a five-year-old can remember. either way, anyone who was around then does not like to talk about it. 

a common misconception is that the un-life war ended in a human victory. it was more like a draw, at best; both parties agreed on a tentative coexistence. one would think that the blood-born, with their heightened senses, speed, and strength, would have had the advantage over humans. but humans are surprisingly good at working out how to take the lives (if you could call it that) of those that are stronger than them. or perhaps not surprisingly, if you know your history at all. 

now, the blood-born are (relatively) regular parts of daily life. you can find them checking you out at your local convenience store, or treating you in the emergency room, or perhaps belting out an impressively high note in a rock ballad saved on your phone’s music library. they have become a part of the woodwork, minus the undercurrent of obvious discrimination that runs both ways. both are scared of the other, but humans are more scared of the blood-born. 

(minseok’s lips curl into a sarcastic smile when i ask about blood-born doctors. “humans always have such a problem with blood-born treating them,” he says. “but apparently it’s the norm for humans to treat blood-born, even though they can never know the way we work like we do. it doesn’t go both ways. we were all human once.”)

the most important point to understand here and the most important thing i have learned in my stay with X-ACT, in my opinion, is that blood-born are  _ just like us _ —except for the part where they need to ingest blood on a regular basis to survive. kind of like how humans need to ingest water on a regular basis to survive. blood-born have favorite movies, blood-born squabble over who gets the last piece of pizza, and blood-born fall in love. 

 

 

AFTER LUNCH, jongin, who has finally relaxed around me, lets me know that we are going to head to the X-ACT training facility. known as pedestal, the facility is sponsored by the IBBHD for use by all hunter groups based in new york. X-ACT are large enough that they cover most of new york, so they are the primary users of pedestal. 

the team quickly splits off, and i am told that i am riding to pedestal on the back of baekhyun’s motorcycle. the rest of them drive away in sleek black cars, again courtesy of the IBHHD. baekhyun’s motorcycle isn’t horrible looking either, and it’s very clear he’s fond of it. 

because baekhyun and i are in private, i take the opportunity to relay to him taemin’s message. “i was asked to tell you something through jongin,” i say. “but i’m a big believer in cutting out the middle man. taemin says hello.” 

it’s rather entertaining to watch how quickly baekhyun flushes. he is normally very poised, but right now he seems nothing but flustered. “he can tell me himself,” he mutters, swinging a leg over his seat. “hop on.” 

baekhyun drives the way he talks: fast and precise. it is easy to assume—and many do—that half of the things that come out of baekhyun’s mouth are filler. but i have learned there is always a purpose behind what he says, even though it may not always be outwardly clear. 

pedestal is very much the opposite of the hub. it’s flat and long, shaped like a triangle close to the ground. chanyeol informs me that the majority of pedestal is underground, with several sublevels of training rooms involving both traditional equipment and virtual reality stations. virtual reality has long been employed by the military to prepare soldiers for combat, but the IBBHD was only recently able to obtain clearance for its hunters.

“the training sims are really helpful,” chanyeol says as he leads me inside the building. “obviously, we can’t prepare for every possibility, but blood-born are just as predictable as humans are, and we capitalize on that as much as possible.” 

“maybe it’s because you were all human once,” i say, remembering what minseok had said to me, and chanyeol looks at me, startled. “how different is it? i read your files; you were bitten recently, so you spent the majority of your life as human, correct? it can’t be that much different to be blood-born, minus the heightened senses and speed.” 

“and strength,” chanyeol says with a grin. “honestly, the only thing we’re missing is the ability to fly. it would’ve been nice if we could’ve turned into bats like the urban legends used to say.”

“i’m not sure how happy the rest of us would be with a bunch of blood-sucking bats flying around.”

chanyeol’s face immediately transforms into a pout. i have noticed that he tends to switch between emotions with a dizzying speed, as though he is on a rollercoaster of life and experiencing every high and low with the same level of extreme intensity.

“fair enough,” he says. “but bats are cute.” 

“we will have to agree to disagree,” i reply. 

“you’re no fun,” chanyeol insists. “but to answer your question, yeah, there’s not that much that’s different. we just have to be… more careful, you know? even though most of us were in the public eye before the bite and before X-ACT, we were human. now we have to take extra care to make sure we don’t make any mistakes, because one slip-up and everyone decides that yep, blood-born shouldn’t be given the responsibility and power that we have.” he gives me a wry smile. “don’t get me wrong; i’m not ungrateful for any of this. things are changing, and even though it’s slow, rome wasn’t built in a night and all that.” 

a surprisingly mature take from someone who wants to turn into a bat. 

the security at pedestal puts the hub to shame. we get patted down by armored guards and then shuffled through a metal detector, and after all that there are still biometric scanners in front of every door—all of which are heavy and metal and probably difficult to force open. in my opinion it seems a little like overkill, but experience has shown it is always better to be safe than sorry. 

we descend three levels, the elevator doors opening to a long, sterile looking hallway. jongdae, baekhyun, and minseok have remained aboveground to speak to someone important about something important. it is clear i’m not allowed in on the details, as the rest of them were very quick in ushering me along. 

they rejoin us as chanyeol is wrapping up my tour of the facility. there is a lot to see, but most of it is repetitive; room after room of workout spaces and sim equipment. there is a weapons vault at the end of the hallway, but there is also about seven more layers of security to get into it and i am not interested enough in seeing a wall of guns to ask chanyeol to let me through. 

“i assume you heard about the attempted bombing of the empire state building two months ago,” minseok says. “it would’ve gone a lot worse than it did had we not been there, but we also could have been a lot more prepared. it was right after that fiasco when we were authorized to start using sims for our training, and we went ahead and made this our first scenario. it’s like they say; hindsight is 20-20. or i guess 100-20 for us.” 

un-life is a careful balancing act. being a blood-born comes with a grab bag of heightened senses like sight, but it also comes with a sun allergy and, of course, the unceasing need to drink blood. it makes it a lot more convenient for blood-born to try and justify their frequent (but growing less frequent by the day) murders.  _ i lost control, it was an accident, you know we have to do this to survive _ . several blood-born rights groups have sprung up debating the issue of if making it illegal for blood-born not to prey on humans to the point of death is the same as forcing people to be vegetarian. the one thing they haven’t seemed to consider, however, is what they will do if they’re one of the humans a blood-born decides to feast on.

(at one point chanyeol had caught my elbow and said, “you know those cheap movies about blood-born?  _ my boyfriend’s a bloodsucker _ and  _ blood-born babes _ , stuff like that? my favorite part of those is when the blood-born goes out into the sun and poof! they explode into a gazillion tiny pieces. imagine if we actually spontaneously combusted everytime we had contact with sunlight.” 

chanyeol seems very keen on conversing with me. his initial apprehension has all but evaporated, and he seems almost as at ease with me as he is with the rest of X-ACT. this almost complete switch had me astounded, until baekhyun cornered me after breakfast on my second day and said, as we were putting dishes in the sink, “chanyeol’s a bit quick to trust people, you know? but he usually has a good nose for people who are chill and those who aren’t. i guess what i’m trying to say is try not to prove him wrong about you.”) 

i am led into the training room, a spacious area with flat, blank walls and a flat, blank floor. chanyeol directs me to take a seat in the corner where a set of couches i hadn’t noticed at first are. i settle in just as yixing takes his first steps onto the open area. a light scans him up and down, and suddenly the scene is shifting with an almost dizzying speed, the walls flickering into an image of the new york city skyline. i spot the lights of the empire state building blinking on, off, on, off cheerily to the side. 

this is as much as i am allowed to divulge.

 

 

FOUR DAYS into the week, the boys get restless and assemble in the living room of baekhyun and jongin’s suite to hash out a plan for a trip. there is an almost comical voting process involving a surprising amount of good-natured yelling. it comes down to a 4-2-2 vote for montauk state beach, the night out at a local club called euphoric that blood-born apparently frequent, and a laser tag tournament, respectively. i am waiting for my invitation, but apparently i was simply supposed to assume that i would be going with them because chanyeol gives me a strange look when he sees my outfit and tells me what i’m wearing is not appropriate for our destination.

we load up into two vans; baekhyun says, with a wink, that they are not willing to break out the limousine for this occasion. the entire two and a half hour ride (made three hours when sehun insists we stop for milkshakes and cues a bout of more good-natured yelling; we do get our milkshakes, however) is best described as boisterous. the music is on the whole time, and it is loud, and a good portion of it is X.O.dus despite the band’s protests. it is with no small surprise that i learn my music taste aligns almost perfectly with chanyeol’s. 

“we’re visiting the lighthouse,” junmyeon says from where he is sitting on my left side. these IBBHD sponsored vans are surprisingly spacious. “have you ever been?” 

“i can’t say that i have,” i reply. the truth is that i have never visited a lighthouse of any kind before. it seems that the entirety of this experience will be novel for me. 

we all reach an agreement to visit the lighthouse last and immediately split up. most of them head down to the beach, bounding over sand and rocks, but chanyeol peels off the rest of the group to join me in walking the boardwalk. 

“so,” he says, hands in his pockets. there is an obnoxiously large rolex on his wrist, but he does not put a lot of effort into the rest of his wardrobe, so i doubt that the biggest reason is to show off. however, knowing chanyeol as well as i do after these four days, some of it is definitely for the purpose of showing off. “you’re a ‘long walks on the beach’ kinda guy, huh?” 

“i’m a ‘i’d like to keep this all strictly professional kind of guy,’” i reply. 

chanyeol chokes on empty air. “oh—oh, no, i wasn’t trying to—i wasn’t flirting with you,” he says a little desperately. for fans of X.O.dus or X-ACT, here is your proof that chanyeol is a terribly awkward man. 

“i meant,” i say, “don’t ask too many questions about  _ me. _ i’m here on behalf of the united states, and really the world as a whole, to learn about you and X-ACT. not just what you do, but you.” 

“oh.” chanyeol is quiet for several blissful seconds. “i don’t think we’re all that interesting, ya know? we’re just a bunch of regular dudes trying to make money and doing our best not to die while we’re at it. i get why you’re here, but… i don’t get why the world is so obsessed with us.” 

“well,” i say, “my take is that it’s because you’re living this. you don’t understand how unusual it is for someone to be in your position because this is your norm. but the rest of us, we’re outside looking in, and we’re curious—it’s only human nature to be.”

“blood-born nature too,” chanyeol says quietly. 

“as a human i wouldn’t know the extent of this, but i’m sure that the work you guys are doing is really inspirational to the average blood-born,” i continue. “not only through X-ACT but through X.O.dus as well. you’re proving that blood-born can not only be your average joe but also have the ability to positively impact the lives of many young and not-so-young people globally. you guys are successful, and people believe in you. that’s what makes people want to know the inside story as well as what you outwardly present.” 

“oh,” chanyeol says. “i didn’t… i never thought of any of this in that way.” 

we converse amicably for the rest of the way around the boardwalk. chanyeol regales me with stories about X.O.dus, some of which are terrifying and all of which are very funny. we make our way back to the rest of the party and head up towards the lighthouse, which is rather imposing in its height and beauty. 

“do you know about the history of this place?” minseok asks. “no? well, baekhyun, take it away.”

“montauk point is the oldest lighthouse in the entirety of new york,” baekhyun says. amused, i listen as he details the past of the lighthouse. “it was commissioned by the second continental congress, by the  _ great  _ george washington himself, all the way back in 1792. not to be confused with 1492, which is when columbus sailed the ocean blue and consequently caused a mass genocide.” he sweeps a grand arm over the view. “that’s really the most interesting thing about it, except for the part where the us army occupied it for a bit during the second world war. but i’ve never really cared about what the us army does, you know?” 

“baekhyun used to be a tour guide when he was in college,” chanyeol tells me under his breath. “his parents made him do it as a character-building exercise or whatever, but all it did was make him weirdly obsessed with history and inclined to make speeches like the one you just heard.”

“an interesting quirk,” i say. this makes chanyeol smile. 

it is a short trip to the top, and the view is nice. again, it strikes me how easy it is to forget that X-ACT are blood-born at all—but this time i am also wondering if it is the same for all blood-born.

  
  
  
  
  
  


  
  
  
  
  


there’s a knock on his door. 

“hey,” chanyeol says, leaning against the frame. “you doing alright? all this isn’t too much for you, is it?” 

kyungsoo leans back in his chair, hearing it creak just a little, tapping his pen against his cheek in amusement. “i’m a journalist, chanyeol. none of this is even close to  _ too much _ for me.” 

“yeah? have you had a lot of crazy assignments?”

shaking his head, kyungsoo says, “doesn’t matter. i’m here for—”

“i know, i know,” chanyeol says. he grabs the chair next to kyungsoo’s and scoots it over so they’re face to face, or as close to it as they can be with their massive height difference. “you’re here for our sides of the story and not to talk about yourself. but you know what i think?” 

“what?” kyungsoo says softly. 

“i think you’re just afraid of opening up to people,” chanyeol says. “you want us to trust you enough to answer any question you ask us, but you’re forgetting that a relationship is a two-way street. i drive to you and you drive to me.” 

kyungsoo doesn’t really know what to say at first, mostly because chanyeol has hit the nail right on the head… and they’ve known each other for, what, four days? five? he’s only supposed to be there for a week but when he looks at chanyeol he gets the urge to just  _ stay _ . which is crazy. kyungsoo never stays. he never gets attached. he’s given it a lot of thought, and everything is just easier that way. 

“um,” kyungsoo says. 

chanyeol holds up a large hand. “you don’t have to, like, tell me your darkest secrets or whatever. just maybe reciprocate a little.” 

tilting his head a little, kyungsoo watches chanyeol sit and watch him with that unnatural blood-born stillness. usually chanyeol’s more restless, drumming rhythms into the side of his seats and looking at everything like he could pull it into a song and prop it up against a beat. 

“i have a brother,” kyungsoo says, breaking the silence. it hadn’t been a bad silence, and kyungsoo is good with silences, but. chanyeol… makes things different. he’s not sure he likes it, but he’s not sure he dislikes it either. “he’s older than me. works in a bar downtown, and he does well enough because he’s young and good-looking.” 

“guess it runs in the family then,” chanyeol says, smirking. 

“are you going to try to tell me you aren’t flirting with me again?”

chanyeol flushes. “no, uh. this one was… definitely, uh, flirting with you.” 

“chanyeol—”

“i’m not, like, expecting anything,” chanyeol rushes to say. “if this makes you uncomfortable, i’ll back off, but…” he scratches the back of his neck, and kyungsoo widens his eyes as he says, “i think you’re really cute, ya know? just… yeah. sorry.” 

“we barely know each other,” kyungsoo mumbles.

chanyeol winces when his chair creaks as he tries to pull away from kyungsoo. “which is why i said i’m not expecting anything. i guess what i’m trying to say is, after this week… don’t be a stranger, all right? stay in touch with me. with us.” 

“i think—”

the lights flicker. 

“that’s weird,” chanyeol mutters. the lights flicker again, and this time they both stand. kyungsoo’s hands clench around his pen, and even chanyeol looks tense, head cocked. “soo. do you hear that?”

kyungsoo can’t hear anything over the sound of his hammering heart, and if most of that has to do with the fact that chanyeol just called him  _ soo _ as quick and easy as if it had been second nature, then so what? “hear… what do you hear?” 

“right,” chanyeol says. “i forgot humans don’t—”

this time, the lights plunge off completely. immediately, chanyeol grabs his arm and herds him toward the door, keeping a firm grip on him the entire time. 

“this isn’t supposed to happen,” chanyeol says in a low voice. “if you have to leave this room, then stick with me; at least i can see in the dark. unlike you. do you know how to shoot a gun?”

“yes,” kyungsoo says. his wrist burns where chanyeol’s grip is, and even more so when chanyeol brings up his hand so he can press his mouth briefly to the spot. 

“i’m going to go check things out,” chanyeol says. “could be nothing, but it’s better to be safe than sorry when we are who we are.” he hands kyungsoo a pistol. “wait here for me.” 

“absolutely not,” kyungsoo says immediately. “i’m not letting you go out there alone.”

there’s a large crashing noise, and chanyeol sucks in a sharp breath. “no. kyungsoo, you said you wouldn’t insert yourself into dangerous situations while you were here. we’re liable for you.”

kyungsoo snorts. “i said i wouldn’t try and follow you onto one of your missions. but i’m not just going to sit around here and wait for the danger to come to me.”

“i don’t want you to get hurt.”

“i can take care of myself, chanyeol,” kyungsoo says, with finality, and finally chanyeol seems to realize he can’t convince him to stay. “now let’s stop wasting time and find this motherfucker.” 

“i think i’m just a little bit in love with you,” chanyeol says under his breath. there’s an awkward pause. “oh god. did i say that out loud? i said that out loud, didn’t i?” 

“you can freak out about it later,” kyungsoo says, and steps out into the hallway. chanyeol takes the lead, because he can actually see, and kyungsoo snags the back of his shirt and follows just a couple steps behind. 

everything is just a little too silent. the lights are still off, and there’s a sense of foreboding hanging thick in the air like smoke, threading its way into their lungs and stealing their breath. kyungsoo is honestly surprised that someone, whoever it is, managed to breach the hub’s security. a feeling tells him it’s blood-born, and kyungsoo has learned to trust his feelings in the past several years at his job. they make their way to the living room, and kyungsoo hears chanyeol inhale, quick. 

“baekhyun?” 

“put these on,” kyungsoo hears baekhyun say, and then there’s something that feels like a pair of glasses being pressed into his palm. “they’ll help you see. top floor is completely shut down and i haven’t seen anyone, whether they’re on our side or not. but the smell…” 

“like butterscotch,” chanyeol is saying, but kyungsoo can only focus on the fact that he can now see baekhyun and he’s covered in blood. it’s dried in lines of black on the side of his face and neck, disappearing into his shirt. 

“your blood is black,” kyungsoo says without thinking. he already knows this, of course. he’s just never seen a blood-born bleeding in front of him.

baekhyun gives him a blank look. “yeah. our blood tends to be that color. you should probably get back in your room so you don’t get—”

“i’m staying with you,” kyungsoo says firmly. “not one of you will be able to convince me to hang back, so i suggest you don’t bother. i doubt we have a lot of time to waste.” 

smiling faintly, baekhyun says, “fair enough. you two need to get on ground level and meet at the designated spot.”

“where are you going?” chanyeol asks, frowning.

“i’m going to find jongin,” baekhyun answers, saluting them with his pistol. “stay sharp, both of you. try not to die. again.” he winks at chanyeol, and then he’s gone, disappearing with so little a trace it’s almost like he wasn’t there in the first place. 

“why jongin?” kyungsoo asks chanyeol, fingers once again closed around the back of his shirt. 

“it’s protocol,” chanyeol answers. he sounds distracted. “if the security of the hub is ever breached we find our housemate first. that way no one stays alone for long.” 

“so we’re gonna look for yixing?”

“exactly,” chanyeol says. they stop in front of the elevator, and chanyeol jabs the button several times. kyungsoo reaches out to grab a hold of his wrist. “sorry. the hub… this has never happened before. attacking us at home? they have a serious vendetta against us.” 

as they step into the elevator, kyungsoo says, “it sounds like you and baekhyun know who it is.” 

the elevator doors close. chanyeol’s hand is clenched around the handle of a knife kyungsoo hadn’t even seen him draw. “couple months ago, we busted a drug smuggling ring that went by daisy. they manufactured and sold the worst kind of drugs—i’m talking vibe, redrum, the likes—and they tried to get as many people hooked on them as possible. but we weren’t able to get all of them, and i guess the stragglers are back for revenge.” he looks at kyungsoo. “daisy was run by two sisters. they always smelled like butterscotch. the older one’s in jail.” 

“and the younger one’s in here,” kyungsoo says. he watches the number over the elevator door count down to one. “first floor?”

“there’s a lab in the basement that yixing spends a shit ton of time in,” chanyeol says, and sure enough the number slides past one to rest on LL. “stay close.” 

the doors open. as they walk down the hallway, the lights flicker on, cold and white. kyungsoo feels a little like the walls are closing in on him, and without even thinking about it he slips his hand into chanyeol’s. chanyeol gives him a startled look, but squeezes his hand, and kyungsoo feels marginally better. sure, he’s been in a lot of tight spots with his job, but this is a whole new situation.

the lab is eerily silent. it’s a collection of gleaming technology, from centrifuges to bunsen burners to racks full of labeled chemicals. the two of them glide through the tables, senses on high alert, kyungsoo pressing close to chanyeol’s body. 

“duck,” comes a hushed voice, and chanyeol pulls kyungsoo down just as something goes whistling over their heads. chanyeol twists out of kyungsoo’s grip, and kyungsoo turns his head in time to see him driving his knife into the neck of a blood-born behind them. he slices across the blood-born’s throat and he thuds to the ground. 

kyungsoo walks over to see the blood-born’s skin still bubbling from whatever had been tossed at him. yixing steps up to his left, grimacing. 

“gross,” kyungsoo says flatly. 

“let’s head out and regroup,” yixing says. he has blue gloves on, and he snaps the elastic band around his right wrist absentmindedly as he looks down at the dead blood-born. he and kyungsoo watch as chanyeol crouches, turning the blood-born’s bloodied neck to the side to reveal a yellow daisy tattooed into his skin. 

“just as we thought,” chanyeol says. “stairs this time.” 

kyungsoo finds himself in the middle of the two of them, following chanyeol’s careful steps as he makes his way towards the stairs. he adjusts his glasses; if they fly off his face or break before they get outside, he’s more or less screwed. at the very least he’d be totally dependent on chanyeol and yixing to not meet an untimely demise, and that’s the last thing he wants. 

chanyeol stops them next to the stairwell, placing his hand flat on a section of the wall that looks the same as any other, but as a couple seconds pass it buzzes and flashes blue. the panel slides back to reveal a gun, which chanyeol carefully pulls out and hands to kyungsoo. 

“through the neck or the heart,” chanyeol reminds him. “that’s the only way they’ll go down for good.” kyungsoo takes the gun. 

they’ve taken two steps when a bullet whizzes past kyungsoo’s ear. the only reason it hadn’t embedded itself into his forehead is because yixing had pulled him to the side just in time; kyungsoo finally realizes he’s in way over his head. 

“kyungsoo—” chanyeol says, voice urgent, but kyungsoo waves his concern away.

“i’m fine,” he says. “yeol, i’m fine.” 

yixing spares the two of them a curious look before telling chanyeol to lead them up the stairs. they’re halfway off when the lights shut off completely, plunging them back into darkness. it takes a second for kyungsoo’s glasses to adjust, but a second is all it takes for him to be slammed against the wall by a blood-born come out of seemingly nowhere. 

he struggles in her grip, but his strength is no match for hers and she forces the gun out of his hand right before plunging her teeth into his neck. he’s heard first-hand accounts of being bitten, but it couldn’t have prepared him for how the pleasure that rushes through his body is so acute that he goes light-headed. even as his body starts relaxing, he reaches into his jacket pocket to pull out a small vial of the chemical that yixing had thrown onto the blood-born in the basement, and with the last of his strength he shatters it against her skin. 

she lets go of him with a howl of pain, and then chanyeol is there, yanking her throat back and slicing into her skin. he tosses her out of the way and looks at kyungsoo with a frown. “this is why i told you to stay in your room.”

“bullshit,” kyungsoo replies, picking up his gun. another blood-born appears in the doorway, but this time kyungsoo is prepared. he shoots him straight in the forehead, and he drops, clearly not expecting to be attacked by a human. “this is ridiculous. how many of them even are there?” 

“honestly?” yixing says. “we don’t really have an idea as to how deep this organization runs.” 

“great,” kyungsoo mutters. his neck is aching where the blood-born had bitten it. he puts a hand against it, only for it to come away sticky with blood. “this didn’t close properly.” 

“it won’t until—” chanyeol flushes. “do you want me to, uh…” 

kyungsoo raises an eyebrow at him. “well, i don’t want to bleed to death. do your worst.” 

yixing looks away immediately. chanyeol hesitates, then lowers his mouth to kyungsoo’s neck, stopping his lips millimeters from his skin. kyungsoo shudders a little at the feeling of his breath ghosting over the bite, and almost unconsciously he brings his hand up to rest lightly in chanyeol’s curls. it’s when chanyeol feels the weight of kyungsoo’s hand in his hair that he finally closes the distance. kyungsoo’s entire world narrows to chanyeol’s hands gripping his waist, to the sensation of chanyeol’s tongue swiping lazily against his skin. without even meaning to, kyungsoo lets out a soft moan, and chanyeol jerks back just as kyungsoo’s face colors red. 

“you done?” yixing asks, looking amused. 

“yeah,” chanyeol stammers, not looking at kyungsoo. “yeah, it’s closed.” 

“then what are we waiting for?” 

the lobby is deserted. it’s eerie, in the darkness, and kyungsoo is thankful to have chanyeol at his front and yixing at his back. yixing spots something and they follow him around a corner where baekhyun, jongin, junmyeon, and sehun stand, pressed against the wall. 

“oh good,” baekhyun says, smiling. his face is streaked with black blood and his teeth shine in sharp contrast to it. “you’re all alive.” 

“where’s the rest?” yixing looks a little agitated.

“no idea,” sehun answers. “baekhyun and jongin found us on the twentieth floor. we were surrounded, too—good thing they showed up. we haven’t seen anyone else.” 

“how many?” chanyeol asks. 

“seven for us,” junmyeon says.

“four.” jongin twirls his blade absentmindedly. “you?”

“five,” chanyeol says. “they might already be outside. let’s just follow the plan and hope they show up.” 

“that’s only if they aren’t trying to be heroes,” baekhyun says under his breath. “it’s better if we don’t all go at once. chanyeol, you and yixing should get kyungsoo outside. he’s been in the thick of things long enough. radio in to tell me if the rest of them are outside; if they’re not, i’m going in.” 

“baekhyun, don’t be stupid,” jongin says. 

baekhyun barely spares him a glance. “we don’t have time to argue about this,” he says, jaw set. “we can’t ask them where they are and risk giving away their positions. if they show up while i’m inside, just tell me. it won’t matter if they know where i am; i’ll deal with it. enough talk.  _ go _ .” 

with obvious reluctance, chanyeol takes kyungsoo by the hand and inclines his head towards the door. on the count of three they make a run for it, bursting through the doors into the night air only to come face to face with—

“taemin?” kyungsoo gasps. 

“i got the call,” taemin says. “what the hell is going on?” 

“it’s daisy—wait, is that…” chanyeol trails off as he notices taemin’s covered in blood. “what happened to you?” 

“there were a couple of them waiting for you out here,” taemin answers. his face falls a little as jongin and the rest of them show up at the door without baekhyun. “so i took care of them. hey, nini.” 

“hey, taem,” jongin says, reaching over to give him a one-sided hug. “if you’re looking for baekhyun, he’s playing hero and has gone inside alone to look for the rest of the team.”

taemin pales. “what?” 

“just because he’s our best hunter doesn’t mean he—wait, taemin, what are you—”

they all watch as taemin runs into the building. 

“both of them,” jongin says, brows furrowed, “are so  _ fucking _ stupid.” 

“he doesn’t even know where baekhyun is,” kyungsoo says. chanyeol gives him a look, eyes soft, and he licks his lips under the scrutiny. 

chanyeol’s eyes widen. “wait, soo, don’t—”

it’s too late. he swallows to get the bitter taste off his tongue and only then does his brain catch up to what chanyeol has realized. it starts with him feeling light-headed, like the top of his skull is trying to detach from his body, and he sways. chanyeol rushes forward to catch him in his arms. 

“i’m so sorry,” chanyeol whispers—

 

 

kyungsoo wakes up in a hospital bed feeling like utter shit. his neck smarts, and there’s a faint beeping in the background that burrows into his skull and rests there, thudding against his temples. he turns his head slightly only to see chanyeol fast asleep in a chair next to the hospital bed. it makes him smile. 

he lays there for a moment before realizing he’s terribly thirsty. in his search for the call button for the nurse, he makes enough noise that chanyeol wakes—and not only that, he bolts upright, reaching for a weapon like he’s in the middle of a fight. kyungsoo meets his eyes, holding back a laugh, watching him relax in increments. 

“hey,” chanyeol says, scooting his chair closer and smiling at kyungsoo. “you look great.” 

“that’s better than i feel,” kyungsoo replies. “what happened after i… well, i guess, fainted?” 

chanyeol’s eyes linger on kyungsoo’s neck. “the rest of the gang came out a little while after taemin rushed in. and then he came out, holding baekhyun—and you should’ve seen him, soo, he was all bloodied and hurt but he said he’d wiped out the last of them. taemin looked like he was two seconds away from setting him down and then punching him in the face. repeatedly.” 

“baekhyun seems like the type of person people would want to punch in the face repeatedly,” kyungsoo says, and chanyeol laughs, soft. it’s like a balm. “but is he doing okay?” 

“he’s stable,” chanyeol says. “but he’s taking his sweet time waking up. and before you ask, yeah, the rest of them are okay, too.”

"how did taemin do all that?"

chanyeol's eyes crinkle as he smiles. "he's half blood-born. he basically gets all the good parts."

“and…” 

“i’m sorry, soo,” chanyeol says tenderly. “i should’ve kept a better eye on you. but…” he reaches over to take kyungsoo’s hand, fingers curling around his so slowly kyungsoo thinks chanyeol’s afraid he’s going to break. “i hope that your time with us has made you understand being blood-born isn’t all that bad.” 

“i… trust you guys,” kyungsoo admits. “and i want a favor.”

“anything,” chanyeol says. 

“i want to join X-ACT,” kyungsoo says. chanyeol opens his mouth, but kyungsoo holds up a hand. “i don’t want to hear any objection you might have as to me putting myself in danger or what not. if you’re willing to accept me, then i want to join.” 

chanyeol lifts his hand to his knuckles and kisses them. “of course i’m willing. and i’m sure the rest of us will be, too, but… kyungsoo. please be sure. there really isn’t any going back.” 

smiling, kyungsoo says, “there already isn’t any going back now, is there? now. i do have one more favor to ask from you.” 

“what is it?” 

“get me a glass of water so my mouth doesn’t taste so gross,” kyungsoo says, “because i want you to kiss me like our lives depended on it.” 

chanyeol is gone and back so fast it almost makes kyungsoo wheeze, but to be fair he’s been thinking about kissing chanyeol ever since they took the trip to the lighthouse and to have it so near his grasp…

kyungsoo’s always looked at things in a factual way. fact one: chanyeol’s a really, really good kisser. fact two: chanyeol’s lips are a little chapped. fact three: the noises chanyeol is making are leaving him almost too dizzy to function.  

in his haste, chanyeol almost pulls him out of bed, hand cupped around his cheek and mouth insistent, and kyungsoo grabs onto the nearest thing he can find for support and ends up with a broken tray in his hands. 

“fuck,” he says, staring down at it. chanyeol bursts into laughter. 

“you’re going to have to learn to deal with your new abilities,” chanyeol says, pressing a kiss to the side of kyungsoo’s nose. “let’s get the nurse to give you an all-clear so you don’t have to stay in this bed any longer.” 

chanyeol takes him to baekhyun’s bedside just as baekhyun is beginning to stir. 

“hey, sleepyhead,” chanyeol says. baekhyun’s eyes light up as he looks at the two of them, and his eyebrows go up when he sees their joined hands. “how do you feel?”

“i’ve had better,” baekhyun says, sitting upright. “but honestly? i’ve had worse, too.” he swings his legs over the side of his bed, standing and swaying slightly. when chanyeol steps forward to help, he shakes his head. “i don’t need your help; i’m fine.”

“ _ byun baekhyun _ .” taemin stands in the doorway, arms crossed, looking beyond pissed off. “first of all, how fucking  _ dare _ you.” 

“oh, you finally decided i’m worthy to speak to face to face?” 

“baekhyun,” taemin says quietly. 

“maybe we should give you some privacy,” chanyeol says, eyes darting from taemin to baekhyun. 

baekhyun ignores him. “you come to give me a speech about being responsible? because i don’t think you’re the right person to do that, with the way you went barreling in after me and all—”

it’s like a spell is broken; taemin strides forward, and the force of his kiss makes baekhyun stagger into the bed behind him. chanyeol pretends to gag.

“huh,” kyungsoo says. “guess something’s going around.” 

**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/odeysseys)


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